Ex-Hadash head elected leader of Arab monitoring committee

Five candidates had been vying for the top spot on the committee, which is respected by the Arab public.

By ARIEL BEN SOLOMON
Updated: OCTOBER 25, 2015 12:39
MUHAMMAD BARAKEH (photo credit: KNESSET)
MUHAMMAD BARAKEH
(photo credit: KNESSET)
Former Hadash head Muhammad Barakeh was elected leader of the Monitoring Committee of the Israeli Arab Leadership on Saturday.
The committee is an organization that coordinates Arab political action and is made up of Arab MKs, municipal leaders, and other community figures.
Five candidates had been vying for the top spot on the committee, which is respected by the Arab public.
Joint List chairman and Hadash head Ayman Odeh welcomed the election of Barakeh, saying, “This victory is a victory to the patriotic, leftist, and responsible line, especially given the current situation.
“I have no doubt he will lead the Monitoring Committee with a collective vision and genuine partnership with all components of the committee so that we can deal with the challenges facing our people.”
One of the candidates, Sheikh Kamil Ahmad Rayan, who is chairman of the NGO AMAN Center – The Arab Center for a Safe Society, told The Jerusalem Post in late August that the organization is built on a national framework, which includes all political trends. “It is the father” of Arab organizations, he said.
The organization in its current form, founded in 1982, needs to deal with two main objectives, he says: those on the national level and those on the local civic one. In other words, the organization should deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well as local Israeli Arab needs and interests.
Another unsuccessful candidate was Awad Abderfattah, the secretary-general of the nationalist Balad Party.